It was a case that seemed more at home in one of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels than in reality.
On September 7, 1978, Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident writer working for the BBC, felt a mild sharp pain while waiting for a bus on Waterloo Bridge in London.
After looking back, he saw a man picking up an umbrella from the ground. Four days later – exactly 45 years ago today – Markov was dead.
A post-mortem examination revealed that he had been killed with the poison ricin, which had entered Markov’s leg via a small ball fired from the end of the mystery man’s umbrella.
It was a case that seemed more at home in one of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels than in reality. On September 7, 1978, Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident writer working for the BBC, felt a mild sharp pain while waiting for a bus on Waterloo Bridge in London. After looking back, he saw a man picking up an umbrella from the ground. Four days later – exactly 45 years ago today – Markov was dead
Markov had defected to Britain – choosing to move to Clapham, south London – after fleeing Bulgaria in 1969.
The writer had continued to infuriate the communist regime of his home country with broadcasts on the BBC’s Bulgarian service mocking dictator Todor Zhivkov.
When he was attacked, Markov was walking across Waterloo Bridge to get to his office at the BBC.
A man stepped out of a bus stop and stabbed him with an umbrella. After apologizing in a foreign accent, he hailed a taxi and left the scene.
Markov returned to his office, but soon fell ill. He was taken to hospital that night with a high fever and died three days later.
The subsequent post-mortem examination found a pellet the size of a pinhead in his leg, laced with ricin.
His wife, Annabel Dilke, had to raise their two-year-old daughter alone.
In 2013, the main suspect in the case was tracked down in a small Austrian town, where he worked as an antiques dealer.
Francisco Gullino, who died in August 2021, was named as a possible perpetrator of the crime in 2005.
A post-mortem examination revealed that he had been murdered with the poison ricin, which had entered Markov’s leg via a small ball (above) fired from the end of the mystery man’s umbrella.
The bus stop (right) Markov was walking past when he was poked with the umbrella
He was once known as ‘Agent Piccadilly’ by his communist handlers.
He was named in Bulgarian files as their sole agent in London when the regime’s secret services – backed by the Russian KGB – ‘liquidated’ Markov.
Gullino left Britain the day after the attack and flew to Rome, where he reportedly stood at a specific spot in St. Peter’s Square to send a signal to his Bulgarian handler.
In an interview with German filmmakers, Gullino admitted that he was “probably” in London at the time of Markov’s murder, but denied involvement in the plot.
He also refused to confirm that he was a spy, despite the vast evidence in the Bulgarian security archives suggesting that he was.
Gullino was first recruited by Bulgaria in 1970 after being caught smuggling drugs.
He made three trips to London 1977 and 1978, according to files of Durzhavna Sigurnost, the Bulgarian secret police.
After the attack on Markov he returned to Denmark via Rome, where he lived in Copenhagen.
A replica of the umbrella used to kill Markov was previously on display in an exhibition at the Spy Museum in Washington DC
In 1993, after the fall of communism in Bulgaria, he was interrogated for six hours by British and Danish investigators.
He admitted to working as a spy, but protested his innocence over the Markov case and was released after Bulgaria refused to provide information on the case.
Gullino eventually emerged as the prime suspect in 2005 after a Bulgarian investigative journalist examined his country’s surviving intelligence archives.
The much-traveled antiques dealer then lived in the Czech Republic, but had an address in Budapest.
The Daily Mail’s first reporting on the death of Georgi Markov. The news made the front page
The Mail’s reporting on what they called the ‘sinister microball’ used to kill him
He later moved to Wels. Staff at the premises of Juergen Hesz, one of Europe’s most successful antique dealers, said Gullino knows their boss and has been seen at the offices.
He was tracked down by director Klaus Dexel while making the documentary Silenced: The Writer Georgi Markov and The Umbrella Murder.
When asked by filmmakers whether he is still in touch with his Bulgarian contact from the 1970s, he refused to give a clear answer and replied with a smile: ‘This is an intimate question. Is it forbidden to talk to such people?
‘Isn’t it good to cooperate with the secret services of foreign countries?’